SuperAkuma

Using LiveInfo (Beta_3-Xbox_v1.6-Yoshihiro) I can see that both eeprom.bin files have unique MAC address', however a couple of things stand out; DVD Kit Zone value is 00 on both units Confounder value on one of the units has the first half as all zeros HDD Info is missing for both units as I disconnected the HDD while readng the eeprom, would this be a concern?

That link seems to pertain to network hardware and ethernet adapter configuration, but if untested would otherwise be worth consideration. I used the 2020 release of Rocky5 but couldn't tell you what it was originally softmodded with, too much fog and cobweb. I've re-captured my eeprom on both units yesterday via the LPC and PiProm, and noticed they're showing the unique HDD key I wrote. Not an issue as I'm not replacing the HDD at this stage, just trying to correct the system link issue.

That's an interesting thought, but when I ran everything back and removed the softmod one of the additional steps I conducted was re-installing the MS Dash 5960 from the Xbox Mod Tool Disc collection. This is essentially what you are recommending, correct? No snark, just a noob trying to make sure I'm following your thought process.

This may be my ignorance so please throw a flag and help me better understand where needed. I nulled out both HDDs with 32 instances of the character 1 and wrote out the eeprom prior to locking the drive (same process on both units), is this a consequence of what you mention?

I put the same copy of Halo 2 on both systems and then ran the test, which failed. I then used the Halo 2 DLC installer and brought both instances up to 1.5 and installed all the maps and tested again, same results. The oddest part is that I can see the other game started (regardless of which unit I make the host) but always get the unable to join error message once I select it.

I've been racking my brain on this for awhile now and with the holiday break upon us I figured I'd revisit it. Some table setting: I have 2 softmodded Xboxs one is 1.0 and the other 1.6. They are both on dash 5960 and have the latest Rocky5 softmod update. Using this same utility I ran both units back to stock and re-softmodded them just because of this issue, thinking that something must have gone wrong when I originally softmodded these about 10 years ago. After all of this, I'm still getting the error within Halo 2, "unable to join party, try again later" whenever I attempt to join the created system link game. I can see the game that has been created, regardless of which system I create it from. I can FTP to either system just fine, and taking the router out of the mix and directly connecting the 2 units (this time setting a static IP in each) ends in the exact same scenario where I can see that game that has been created, only I cannot join it from the opposing console. Happy to provide more details if needed, but does anyone have a clue as to what could be holding this up?